Tentacle-Free Anime: "Keijo!!!!!!!!" (2016)

With the manga ending soon, I figured there was no better time to tackle one of anime's more interesting series to air last year. They say sales figures for the series was a flop, but does that necessarily make it bad? Well if you're into sports, swimming, and a lot of boobs and butts, then, my friend, this may just be the thing for you.

Keijo!!!!!!!! (2016)

Episodes: 12;Director: Hideya Takahashi;Studio: Xebec;Rating: R

Summary: "Keijo" is a popular gambling sport where contestants stand on platforms floating on the water and must use their butts and chests to fight against each other to push each other off the platform. Nozomi Kaminashi, a high school student, aims to join the sport after she graduates. Nozomi was raised in a poor family and hopes to make lots of money by playing Keijo. She grew up training in gymnastics, and she has good balance and flexibility. After high school, Nozomi joins a training boarding school and enters the world of Keijo. [AnimeNewsNetwork.com]

Are you ready for boobs, butts, and exclamation points up the ass?!?! Yeah!!! I bet you are! Why else would you be watching Keijo!!!!!!!! Oh... oh... you actually watch it for the plot? Huh... well, this is awkward... I don't know what to tell you, then. I mean, the show actually has some great plot, I mean, a lot of plot right there and there and there-- oh! You mean story plot. I thought you meant-no, you didn't? You're not a pervert like me? Okay, that's understandable. I don't think we have anything else to discuss from here. However, if you do want to hear what I have to say about Keijo, then I think I might surprise you. So please don't go. Stay, and let's talk for awhile, shall we?

Click to enlarge

Yes, your eyes do not deceive you. Keijo is an anime that takes the novel idea of girls slamming their ass and tits together in a “professional” sport like manner and competing to see who can do it the best. As if you thought anime couldn't get any more pandering. Butt! Before you get all uppity on me and scoff at the idea of yet another anime filled to the brim with ecchi panty shots and ill-placed, sexually evocative bodies falling on top of one another, just know that when I tell you that this series is filled with plot I don't actually mean the meme where plot = boobs and ass. I mean actual story plot.

Keijo actually has story plot and, on top of that, is actually pretty good.

The series does go above and beyond its basic premise by actually showing Keijo in a professional manner and by presenting it as a sport with rules, regulations, and tiers. Our main girls, then, aren't some underage high schoolers made to look older, butt are instead attending a specific college where one begins her career as a Keijo participant. It's easy to imagine that in this world Keijo doesn't exist as a high school sport, but begins on a legal, college level and then goes into professional territory. And really, if you're rolling your eyes at this being a viable paying job, just remember that Football – which is not the only example I could use – is a bunch of grown men who get payed millions to hit one another and throw around a ball. This is that, minus the balls.

Though in that vein, all of these girls have massive balls.

Looks like she brought some boobs to a butt fight

Keijo as a sport is fought on what is called the “land” and the “land” is a structure sitting atop a pool and can go from a simple massive round arena, to a literal building depending on what is required for the match. And it can get absurd, no doubt, butt the structures are all very interesting in their own right and definitely do add to the whole motif of this being a viable sport.

Now, as far this actually being a sport that could exist in real life: Well, it couldn't. Taking out all of the sexuality obviously apparent in the game, regularly hitting someone with your ass or tits would be very painful and though the girls in this series are definitely superhuman – the attacks get really absurd (even for me) as the series goes on and, just to point it out real quick, I do believe the more shounen aspect of the final half of the series does hurt it quite a bit – this is something that could only exist in a world of make believe. No woman, or man for that matter, could make a career out of this with the amount of force these girls put into beating one another on a daily basis.

It's probably time to talk about the characters. Well, there are quite a few characters, butt there are four main characters. Two of which still take more prominence over the other two. Four girls who are placed together with the expectations that none of them will last the year, let alone a semester. Nozomi, Sayaka, Kazane, and Non are our main heroines. And while all of them do get something to do at some point that helps to define whom they are, the real journey is had by both Nozomi and Sayaka. Friends who've come to this Keijo college together to become the very best Keijo players they can be.

Nozomi comes from a rather poor family and wants to do right by them by becoming a professional Keijo player in order to get a lot of money – butt she also actually does have a heavy interest in the sport and a drive to become the best, not only for her family but herself. Sayaka was a judo prodigy in high school, butt left for Keijo after she graduated. This is the sport she wishes to become a professional at. Her arc is spent proving that she can do it to both herself and her incredibly disapproving father. The other two, Kazane and Non, their arcs are more about overcoming their social awkwardness and finding out what makes them special as Keijo players. Ultimately however, they're just not as important to the overall plot.

One of the many fun references in the series

​The main plot of Keijo the anime begins as a simple story of Nozomi trying to become the best Keijo player that there is. And through all of that lies a great look at what one can achieve with hard work and perseverance within the confines of their desired goal. Nozomi is nowhere near the best player, she's good, but there are tons of other people that are much better. We get to see a lot of actual training from the girls and are allowed to see their hardwork. It's not a montage either, we spend most of the first half of the season seeing these girls sweat and bleed for their rankings. And not necessarily in a sexy way.

I will admit that it's the second half of the season that, while still very fun and filled with a lot of great characters, does see the series dip in quality a bit as it then becomes a tournament arc between two rival school's of Keijo players. With this tournament taking over half the season, what was a series about becoming good then turns into multiple episodes of showing how good you've become.

It sounds like a natural progression of the story, but I do feel the overall narrative stalls in pacing because it comes into play so soon. Also, the attacks become extremely over the top – not even joking, Sayaka wins a match by using one of her nipples, though it's censored. Again, the show is actually really good and develops – perhaps all the puns intended – a decent plot all the way through. Butt I have to admit that at some points, it is exactly what you would imagine it is.

The animation is rather solid for what it is. Nothing to write home about, yet here I am writing about it anyways. This is my home. I never leave. Trash Mutant is eternal. The action is really kinetic and you can feel the pain when each girl slams themselves up against another. Especially when any of the girls hit their butts up against someone face. It's bone shattering. Though the attacks can get absurd, a lot of them are also quite clever and funny. Nozomi's signature move being the aptly named Vacuum Butt Cannon.

I'll let you decipher what that means.​

That's a mighty powerful derriere

Overall, the show has its ups and downs and it's by no means perfect, but it is really fun and actually quite funny, and also takes an admittedly dumb premise and turns it into something that's not only worth watching, butt also something I sort of wish actually existed. I enjoyed getting to know all these girls in a serious way and I was impressed by the amount of seriousness that was in fact presented about the nuances, triumphs, and pitfalls that surround Keijo and give it the appearance of an actual layered pass time.

I do recommend this show. If not for its abundant plot, then for its actual story plot. Either way, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Final Score: 3.5 Mistakes of Bringing a Pair of Boobs to a Butt Fight out of 5

Are you a fan of the plot? Or perhaps the plot? And how many exclamation marks does one title need?!?!?!? Let us know in the comments!